Tag Archives: diy number line

Neva become very interested in number line, and she asked if she can make her own by herself, but couldn’t write the numbers no matter how hard she tried. We tried tracing numbers first then writing them, writing them in sand tray etc. but she was still unhappy and kept scrunching up her work. Then she remembered that we had stickers and thus she set to work happily again! She was trying to make it past the 10 into the teens but we run out of 1’s.

Making number line

Counting on number line

After sticking a number on she’d carefully count all of them from the start, then stick another one on.

Then we found some more stickers (they were bigger then previous ones, so I explained that we need to put 12 on the top, because 11 is taking 2 spaces) and so she finished the line.

When she started I had to explain that the numbers go on or under the notch or a mark on the line, as she was putting them in-between the marks. She did the rest by herself.

Few days later after this post I have watched Christina Tondevold’s video and she says the number lines should only be introduced in grade 2 and instead a Number Path should be used and thinking of it now, it makes total sense. In Number Path there’s no line, no marks, no Zero, so child sees what they need to see. Number line creates confusion for small kids (I have seen it on Neva’s face, but didn’t know why before), but these Number lines are everywhere you look!